Martin Freeman as Everett K. Ross in a scene from Marvel's Black Panther.

LOS ANGELES – Sure Martin Freeman has been the leading man — most notably as Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit film trilogy — but he’s quite happy playing second fiddle. Especially if it’s in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“Well, you need those secondary characters,” Freeman says sliding onto a couch in a Beverly Hills hotel. “Someone’s got to do them.”

In this week’s Black Panther, Freeman reprises his role as Everett K. Ross, who first appeared in Captain America: Civil War.

I was adamant that I didn’t want to play the goofy white guy among a load of black people.

Martin Freeman explains what sets his Black Panther character apart.

Ross is a CIA agent who has to navigate a world with both superheroes and supervillains, always keeping America’s interests paramount.

“He operates in this sort of grey area and that appeals to me all the time,” Freeman, 46, says.

Ross enters the fray when he comes between T’Challa (aka the Black Panther) and Ulysses Klaw (Freeman’s Hobbit co-star Andy Serkis) during a confrontation over the Wakandan precious metal vibranium in a South Korean casino.

“Those are the characters that are the most real. I don’t believe in black and white. Most of the time, it’s people trying to do their best. And I think he’s trying to do his best for America.”

In the Black Panther comics, which were created in the 1960s by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the Ross character provides some of the comic relief. But for the film, which stars Chadwick Boseman and is co-written and directed by Ryan Coogler, Freeman wanted a piece of the action.

“I spoke to Kevin Feige in the fall of 2014 about the idea of being in a few films, one of which would be Civil War and a couple of which would involve Black Panther,” the Fargo star says.

Following the world premiere, Freeman spoke about Ross’ importance to the Black Panther universe, not being the “goofy white guy” and what it was like to finally get his big “Han Solo” moment.

Ross was introduced in Civil War, but here he has a bigger role to play with Black Panther and the world of Wakanda. How does your character fit into this story?

He likes T’Challa. He respects him. He just has no idea what he’s dealing with. Geographically, culturally, historically, he has no clue what the ramifications are of [the Wakandan precious metal] vibranium or what that means. He thinks it’s something Klaw has got a hold of and it’s this containable weapon and little does he know that an entire country runs on it.

I like him because he goes through — to use an overused phrase — a journey of discovery of thinking one thing and then having his eyes opened. By the end he’s onboard and he’s on the bench there to help if the Panther needs him.

As we see, Ross is a guy who will deal with both heroes and villains. That’s an interesting take, particularly in the Marvel Universe.

That is real life. You have compromises everywhere and a lot of times it’s completely necessary. Unless you plan to kill everyone you disagree with, which is A, wrong, and B, a tough job, you have to find a way to deal with people you might loathe. Klaw is a deplorable person, but they have to negotiate.

Ross is relatively new to the comics (he was created in 1998). How did you go about creating your own version of this character?

I was adamant that I didn’t want to play the goofy white guy among a load of black people because that’s a thing we’ve seen a lot. That notion of, ‘I can’t dance or sing, but you guys can,’ that kind of thing. Ryan was completely in agreement with that. He didn’t want Ross to be comic relief. And I thought that was more interesting. Characters are more interesting when they’re not really good or really bad because the truth of the world is way more complicated than that.

What did playing the character make you think about the real people in power?

Whatever we think of the people that rule us and however much we might be tempted to say, ‘He’s a moron,’ well… he’s in the White House and I’m not. So he’s done something right. There has to be something more than either being a genius or a moron or being a terrible person or a saint. That’s where Everett Ross operates. Rather than conspiracy theories I subscribe to the idea of the cock up. I think people are trying their best and things go wrong. I really believe that.

Did you always know Ross had a bigger part to play in the MCU?

People said to me, ‘Oh, you had a small role in Civil War,’ but I knew there was going to be something more.

So are you in Avengers: Infinity War?

Not that I know of. I think Ross may be seen in something else, but I don’t know.

Ross has a couple of big action moments in Black Panther, one of which you called your “Han Solo” moment. What was that like?

They needed me and I stepped in. It was nice. I was playing a white, American outsider, but it’s an old piece of storytelling. People who you think aren’t going to get on, they start understanding each other a little bit more and they make baby steps towards one another and there’s friendship by the end.

You’ve now had an opportunity to appear in two fantastical realms – Wakanda and Peter Jackson’s Middle-Earth. How did they compare?

They’re both very, very impressive. But when you’re filming these types of movies, you’re using your imagination a lot. When the audience watches The Hobbit, they’re never going to think, ‘Oh, I bet they filmed some of this in a car park,’ but we did.

Your BBC show Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch has aired off and on since 2010. Any plans for a fifth season?

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